KINGSTON - Three out of the four county jails in his judicial district are overcrowded, 9th Judicial District Attorney General Russell Johnson said, and a big part of the problem is a growing population of women being locked up for pain pill-related crimes.

That trend became starkly evident to him during a drug roundup in Loudon County in February, Johnson said. He said he looked around the room of suspects, and the vast majority of those being booked for pain pill cases were women.